Trickery's Failure
by Shimmerleaf
Summary: Sabrina visits Mineral Town for the first time and ends up agreeing to help Mary with fooling Gray. This just can't end up well. Secret Santa gift!


A/N: Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everyone, especially Peach the Hedgehog. This little oneshot is for you, so I hope you enjoy it! I apologize if the characters are OOC, I tried my best and did research too, but this was all I could do _

I wanted to add in adventure, but well, I couldn't do it. I'm _so_ sorry if this isn't what you had imagined but I do hope that you'll like it, at least a little bit. I'll be glad to write you something else if you want!

* * *

><p>In two separate corners of the room were two females that shared not only a love of books and reading, but also long black hair that fell past their shoulders, glasses that perched on the bridge of their nose, and a personality that rivalled no other. More often than not, they were quiet, preferring to listen to others. The raven haired female in the back corner was more taken with herself than the female in the corner near the entrance; she liked to spend time alone, away from people, although they both locked themselves away in their perspective homes with books.<p>

Periodically pushing her glasses back up, the raven haired female peeked over the edge of the book at the other female in the library. Even though it was a Wednesday and the library was open, there wasn't anyone else there. Trent had been there for a few hours but had then left, leaving Sabrina alone with Mary. She didn't mind too much as they were both absorbed in what they were doing, but the silence was becoming a bit too loud for her. Mary looked as if she wasn't bothered at all, which made sense since as far as Sabrina knew, Mary had been here her entire life, while this was her first time in Mineral Town.

Her father, Regis, had to attend an important meeting taking place in the city, and while he invited her to go with him, she had declined, preferring to stay home; besides, she was old enough to take care of herself. The day after Regis left, Sabrina's friends, Karen and Popuri, had told her they were leaving early, that they wanted to go home to celebrate the New Year with their family, and asked her if she wanted to go with them. Even now she couldn't figure out why she had said yes; Mineral Town was foreign to her, and she knew of no one there besides Karen, Popuri, Cliff and Trent. Nonetheless, she was here now, and she was enjoying her time. All the people she had met so far were nice to her, especially Mary, although the librarian also made her feel uneasy. Most of the people that saw them together would stop and comment on how their appearances were similar, and although she didn't mind that, the way in which they said it bothered her. Maybe Sabrina was thinking too much, but they sounded disapproving to her when they talked about how Mary and her looked alike. While it was somewhat strange that they were comparable in many ways, she didn't think it was that much of a deal, why were they making it seem like it was?

"Are you alright Sabrina? You look frazzled, is something wrong?" Mary asked her, breaking her out of her thoughts. She looked at the librarian and smiled, nodding her head. "Are you enjoying the book?"

Sabrina remembered Karen telling her that Mary was an author, having written and published a few books over the years. Glancing at the spine, she saw that the one she held just happened to be one of those books, and she nodded curtly in response. Truth to be told, she hadn't gotten far in the book, perhaps only three chapters, as she had been regularly distracted by the quietness and stillness of the room. "I'm fine, Mary, and this is a great book," she replied. There wasn't much she could say about it considering how she had yet to be exposed to the conflict between the characters, but so far, Sabrina thought it was well written, captivating, and interesting, which was all she needed to keep reading.

Mary smiled happily before turning back to her own work. After having written and published four books over the years, she had decided to take a break, but that had been cut short when out of the blue an idea popped into her head and refused to leave, plaguing her day in and out until she started writing. Picking up her pencil again, she read over what she had written that day before continuing, her pencil making soft scratching noises against the paper.

Occasionally, Mary looked up to see Sabrina with her nose buried deeply within the book and would smile, happy that she was enjoying it. Gray had assured her that her books were fine, that the stories in them were enchanting and wouldn't have problems holding the reader's attention. While she knew he wasn't the type of person to lie, she also knew that in some ways, he would be biased, so she was glad to have Sabrina tell her the book made a good read. As far as Mary knew, Sabrina didn't know that many people in Mineral Town and therefore she wouldn't have been influenced in any way. Although... Mary had to wonder why Sabrina had come to Mineral Town with Karen and Popuri in the first place. They had said they wanted to celebrate the holidays with their family, but didn't Sabrina have her own family to be with? The winter holidays didn't mean much to Mary, her own parents would often travel to Waffle Island to take advantage of the warmth, leaving her all by herself for Starry Night.

Shaking her head to clear away unnecessary thoughts, Mary turned back to her writing, flipping the page over to continue on the back, although she continued to look up at the raven haired female sitting in the back of the room. As she started on her tenth paragraph of the day, minus all dialogue, she noticed that Sabrina had fallen asleep, or that's what it looked like to her. Considering how it was still early in the day, she didn't see any point in waking her up, so she let her be, going back to her own work.

xxx

Opening her eyes to see the room dimmer than before, she rubbed the sleepiness out of them before standing up, stretching her muscles as she went. Looking around the library, Sabrina found a clock and saw that it was already eight PM. She hurried over to where Mary was and started apologizing profusely. "I apologize, Mary; did I keep you from closing the library and returning home?"

The black haired female looked up from her work and smiled, shaking her head no. "It's fine Sabrina, I like to stay at the library instead of going home anyway. My parents took a trip to Waffle Island for two weeks so there's no one at home either. I much prefer to stay here."

Sabrina nodded her head, murmuring. "I see; well, I think I should head back to Doug's Inn before it gets too dark." It was nearing the end of winter and the winds that blew at night were known to chill people to the bone. The cloudless sky had disappeared as dark clouds had taken over, threatening to let loose snow at any time.

Mary watched the raven haired female approach the door, pulling it open, before calling out to her. "Hey Sabrina, are you busy tomorrow? If not, would you like to help me with something?" she asked, eyes twinkling. Tomorrow was to be Starry Night, and surprisingly, Gray had asked her to celebrate it with him. Mary had told him yes, but now that Sabrina was here, she planned to have some fun first. Previous years, he had managed to trick her, telling her stories in which she took to be true only to find out he had made them up. There was also that one time he had somehow gotten Cliff to pretend to be him to trick her, although Mary suspected Claire had something to do with it as she couldn't imagine Cliff willingly taking part in something like that. Now it would be her turn to get back at him and besides, his reaction would be useful information to her as she planned to make the antagonist in her current novel do the same thing.

Blinking her eyes, she wondered what the librarian had in mind. "No, I'm not busy tomorrow. What is it that you need help with?"

"Can you pretend to be me for one day?" Well that sure was a strange request. "Gray had Cliff pretend to be him once to trick me, and I want to see what his reaction would be with him on the receiving end."

"I'm not sure, I don't think I will be able to deceive him," Sabrina replied hesitantly. She didn't know Gray that well and she knew without a doubt that he would end up making her nervous and fidgety, making it easy for him to figure out that she wasn't Mary.

"Mostly, I want to know his reaction for my next book. I'm planning for the antagonist to pull the same trick on another character and would like more information, my creativity only stretches so far," Mary added, trying to get Sabrina to agree to her plan. Normally she wasn't one to pull such pranks but she was making an exception of herself for the sake of making her characters seem more real, and plus, she really _did_ want to know how Gray would react.

Sabrina was still hesitant but gave a reluctant nod of the head. "Uhm, alright, I can try to help. What would you like me to do?"

"Can you meet me here tomorrow at five o'clock?"

"Yes, I'll meet you here then. Good night Mary," Sabrina replied, walking out the door and heading for the inn. Now that Mary was alone in the library, she began to let her senses fade, wanting to be wholly submerged into her work and the characters. In every one of her novels there was a 'bad boy', not necessarily the antagonist that loved to trick people. In the first few books, the characters were modelled after Ann and Karen, and this time she wanted them to adopt a few traits of Gray's, and the only way for her to make them seem realistic was to do research.

Truth to be told, Mary wasn't sure tricking Gray like this would be a good idea, but she needed to know the results, and that curiosity outweighed anything that was holding her back. Time for her to throw caution to the wind, for just once day.

* * *

><p>"A-are you sure this will work?" Sabrina asked, her eyes shifting in multiple directions as Mary stood behind her, pulling her shoulder length hair into braids. Mary had lent her a change of clothes and now she looked just like Mary; the sight of the two of them this close was beginning to look eerie.<p>

"I can't guarantee anything, but I'm willing to try," Mary replied, fixing the final braid in place with an elastic band. She smiled when looking at Sabrina, still feeling surprised at how similar they looked. "Have you ever pulled a trick on someone before?"

She couldn't necessarily say she hadn't as she had been involved in pulling tricks on friends before, but never had she been the brains behind them, although unlike Mary, she didn't need to see their reactions. If the two of them were as similar as everyone thought then she was impressed; if it was her, she knew she'd never be able to pull something of this magnitude off. "I haven't, but my friends included me in their plans before. I'm... not that good at deceiving people."

Mary smiled and placed a hand on Sabrina's shoulder. "Neither am I, this is just research, at least that's what I keep telling myself. I can imagine Gray not being pleased after he finds out, but it's a risk I'm willing to take to strengthen my characters. I'm sure he won't be too crossed with us afterwards."

Something in the back of her mind told her otherwise as Gray had asked her a few days earlier if she was free tonight, saying he had something important to ask her. The look on his face then was all serious and a part of her was reluctant to go through with this. They had been together for almost a year and as happy as she was around Gray, there were times she would feel slightly intimidated by him, especially when he got angry. Mary knew the ways he expressed anger were different from Saibara's but she was still cautious around him. Of course, he would never hurt her but it was just a precaution.

A gust of wind blowing in announced Gray's arrival and Mary gave one final smile at Sabrina before backing away, hiding in the shadow of a bookcase so that she was out of sight but was able to see Gray's face. In her arms were a pencil and her notebook, ready to take note of Gray's reaction when the time came.

"Hey Mary, you ready to leave yet?" Gray asked, walking up to Sabrina and joining her at the table. From Mary's point of view, she could see that he looked agitated, anxious, and nervous about something, although she hadn't an idea what it could be. "If you're not done yet, we could leave later; the stars don't come out this early anyway."

That was when Mary remembered that tonight was the night of the Starry Night Festival, and she had told Gray she would be happy to spend the night with him. She sighed, wondering how she could've forgotten about the festival. She remembered Gray asking her to go out with him tonight, but it hadn't crossed her mind that it was Starry Night. If she had known, she would've asked Sabrina to help her on a different day, but now the plan was already in motion and although it wasn't too late to stop it, Mary didn't want to, her curiosity was getting the better of her.

"I-it's fine, I've finished my work for today," Sabrina replied, her voice catching in her throat, making Gray look at her with inquisitive eyes. She shook her head and cleared her throat, giving him a reassuring smile to the best of her abilities. _This is hard to pretend to be Mary; I hope nothing goes wrong before Mary gets her results._ "Where are we going?"

"Mother's Hill; it's the best place to look at stars, you're the one that told me that last year," he replied, eyes concentrated on her still, making Sabrina feel extremely nervous. She had only been here, at Mineral Town, for a few days and had yet to familiarize herself with the surroundings. The only places she knew a lot about were the library and Doug's Inn, having spent most of her time at those places. She also liked to walk along the shore, feeling the cold winter breeze against her cheeks, but as the temperatures were low, she didn't linger outside for long.

"Of course, I guess my mind's still on my book," she explained quickly. "Let us go then." Tentatively, she took Gray's hand, biting her lip as she went, and walked out of the library, fiddling with the doorknob to make it look as if she locked it. Peering inside, she made sure Mary saw the two of them before forcing a shy smile at Gray and letting him lead.

Once the sound of their footsteps faded into the distance, Mary got up from her hiding place and grabbed her coat from her chair, putting it on before leaving the library, officially locking it. Slowly, and bit by bit, she was starting to have second thoughts on the whole idea. It wasn't her nature to do something of this sort in the first place, but she had. _Maybe Gray will figure it all out before the end of tonight; if he does I'll have to make changes to my novel, but the changes are worth it. I just hope he won't be _too_ angry at me._

xxx

It was different being outside watching the stars than being inside, watching them from afar and through a window. This was Sabrina's first time seeing the shimmering faraway lights out in the open and she was surprised at how magnificent the view was. Staring in awe at the glistening stars, Sabrina hardly paid any attention to Gray, who was standing a few paces behind her, looking too up at the sky and sometimes at her.

They were both quiet on the way here, which hadn't bothered Gray much. While Mary and Gray were comfortable with each other and enjoyed sharing stories, they were both quiet people. Sabrina on the other hand felt incredibly awkward around him, and although she knew Mary was following them to observe Gray, she still didn't feel comfortable around him. Not many people ever asked her for favours and as this was her first time in Mineral Town and she hardly knew anyone, she really wanted to help Mary out.

"This place is indeed the best place to look at stars," Sabrina murmured, taking another step forward so that she was only a few metres from the edge of the cliff.

Gray grunted in reply, his eyes staying on her the entire time. From where Mary hid herself, she noticed that he looked as if he was contemplating something; his facial expression told her that he was arguing with himself in his mind. Every time his eyebrows knitted themselves together and his mouth formed a straight line meant he was thinking hard about something difficult.

There wasn't much vegetation on Mother's Hill, making it hard for Mary to keep herself concealed while minimizing the distance between herself and them. She couldn't help but feel guilty for following them, but that was the entire purpose of her plan: to record Gray's reaction once she revealed herself. Mary still hadn't figured out an appropriate time for that though, and Sabrina hoped it would be soon.

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Sabrina turned around, catching Mary's eyes, before looking at Gray, tilting her head slightly to the left. She fidgeted with the hem of her sleeves, her gaze directed at the objects behind Gray instead of on his face.

"Mary, there's something I want to ask you," Gray stated, out of the blue.

"W-what is it?" she stuttered, her entire body tensing up. His tone sounded serious and internally, she started panicking, wondering if he had figured out that she wasn't Mary.

He mumbled something under his breath before looking up at her, squarely in the eyes. "I've wanted to ask you this before, but..." He shrugged, eyes turning downcast for a moment before returning to look at her. Reaching a hand into his pocket, he pulled out a small box, and from where Mary was hiding, she gasped, quickly covering her mouth, hoping he hadn't heard her. Sabrina just stood there, petrified, staring with wide eyes. "I haven't learnt how to make a ring yet, so I can't give one to you, but I hope this will make up for it." Opening the box, Gray withdrew a small brooch, made out of blue feathers and Sabrina swallowed, trying to down the lump that had formed in her throat. Now she was panicking for sure. "Mary, will you marry me?"

Sabrina couldn't believe her ears, had he just asked what she thought he asked? Frantic, she looked to where she thought Mary was hiding and pleaded to the Goddess that Mary show herself. "Uhm, I-I..."

Biting her lip, Mary tried to calm her erratic heart. She was happy to hear Gray proposing, but this was never how she had imagined it. While Starry Night was romantic, she had always envisioned something else, like one of the proposals she kept reading in her romance novels. Gulping, she sighed and inhaled deeply, gathering her courage, praying the entire time that Gray wouldn't be angry. "Gray." Stepping out of her hiding spot, she walked up to them, clutching her notebook and pencil.

His eyes bulged slightly at the sight of them both, an unclear emotion filling his eyes. "That's Sabrina; she's visiting from the Sunshine Islands. I-I wanted to see your reaction to getting tricked, like that time you tricked me w-with Cliff. I-I was planning to incorporate the idea into my novel..." Mary trailed off, her voice getting softer and softer until it was barely audible. Her face was flushed as she explained, avoiding both of Gray's and Sabrina's stares. "It was my idea, don't blame Sabrina..."

"I know," he replied, shocking the both of them. "I could tell she wasn't you."

"I-I think I s-should leave, I-I'll see you tomorrow M-Mary," Sabrina stuttered, quickly turning away and hurried down Mother's Hill, leaving Mary and Gray alone.

Gray smiled gently at her, holding out the brooch. "Are you going to answer me?"

"You're not going to ask about what I did?"

He shrugged. "Doesn't matter. You said it was for your book, and I believe you. You two do look alike, but she's too quiet around me."

Mary smiled in return, agreeing with him. She couldn't blame that on Sabrina though, as the same could be said about her if she were to be around strangers. "My answer, would be yes."

"Once I learn how to make _good_ rings, I'll make you one, but this brooch will have to do for now. I-I love you, Mary."

"M-me too Gray," she replied, grinning at him. "Me too."

* * *

><p>"You should come back to visit us again sometime, Sabrina," Mary stated merrily, watching her new friend boarding the boat that was to take her back to the Sunshine Archipelagos. She had told the raven haired female of her engagement to Gray the day after Starry Night, and had also apologized profusely for putting her in such an awkward situation.<p>

"I will," Sabrina replied softly, waving at them as the driver of the boat started the engine. "If you decide to come to visit me, I'll introduce you to Vaughn, maybe we can switch roles again."

At the mention of that, Mary's face reddened and she smiled shyly.

"Good bye Mary, Gray, I hope we see each other again," Sabrina called before the boat started moving and she was taken farther and farther away from them. With a sigh, she smiled, glad to be returning home. A part of her was excited to tell Chelsea everything that had happened, and she couldn't help but giggle at the mere thought of Mary pretending to be her and having to endure dinner with Vaughn and her father. "I hope I'll see you again soon."


End file.
